[Note: In the wake ofthe Hot Docs festival's postponement this year,The Hollywood Reporteris reviewing select entries that elected to premiere digitally.] In 1970 New York City, a series of ground-shifting, life-saving events took place in relatively quick succession.
It's astounding that they aren't more widely known. But then again, it isn't: They revolve around community activism, alternative medicine and the self-determination of poor people, most of them black and brown.
Not exactly standard American textbook material. Mia Donovan's Dope Is Death sheds welcome light on a forgotten, and still urgent and instructive, chapter of civic history.